


The Spice of Life

by daroos



Series: Avengers Hyenaverse [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Alpha Pepper, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, PWP, just a bit of plot, ladydick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2013-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-02 22:50:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daroos/pseuds/daroos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bringing new people into a relationship is never easy, especially when one of those people is a part time ragemonster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spice of Life

**Author's Note:**

> ABO never made a lot of sense to me until I learned about hyenas, their matriarchy, and their ladydicks (also known as pseudopenises, THROUGH WHICH THEY GIVE BIRTH). Basic premise is that alpha females have a pseudopenis, betas of both genders are equipped with the standard human accoutrements, and omegas will go through heats with the added male omega pregnancy clause.
> 
> Special very sincere thanks to VocativeCase, without whom this would contain significantly less English by volume, and a lot more testicals.

Pepper stroked her hand down Tony’s spine, quieting his writhing to a needy wiggle, and spread his cheeks. He was wet and relaxed, ready for her. He rubbed himself amongst the bedsheets in short thrusts, each one presenting towards her just a little more enticingly. She fit the tip of her shaft to his entrance, feeling the warmth rolling off him and surrounding them in a cloud. Or that may have been the pheromones.

She was aroused and hard, at the height of her alpha instincts, set off by her mate’s heat. She thrust into him, slow but steadily. He groaned, bucking back into her, but she held his hips hard enough to bruise to keep him still. The force turned her on even further, and it seemed to do the same for Tony. He mewled and yelped, spine arching with the sensation.

She seated herself fully inside him, feeling his testicles resting lightly against her as he rose from a crouch to settle in her lap. She thrust into him, sharp enough that some of his breath huffed out in surprise.

“My little omega,” she growled, scratching her long nails down his back and leaving welts in her wake. He arched in response, and she levered him onto all fours again.

“Hey, not so little,” he panted out as she began thrusting into him, slow and regular. She was the restraint and the control in their relationship. She was rules and order and good sense. He was the wild and instinctual and it was her job to keep him in check without him realizing what she was doing.

She slid her palm down his spine and laid it flat at the back of his neck, pushing him to present to her. Her other arm snaked around his waist, low and tight at his hips, pulling him into her. “Mine,” she said, pulling their bodies flush and thrusting into him with a familiar stroke. He was slick and hot, and the delicious friction of his inner walls and the intoxicating scent of him drove her to greater speed and urgency. Tony mashed his face into the bedsheets, muffling his shouts and groans.

She grabbed his ass cheeks roughly, kneading them before moving down the backs of his thighs. He whimpered and thrust his buttocks to meet her rolling movements. He spread his knees further and bore into her, and this time she encouraged him, pulling his hips hard so he slapped against her thighs. She was close. “Touch yourself,” she commanded and his hand sprung to action, gripping his cock with an eager caress. His hand wandered back, slicking on the moisture from her shaft and returning to his own cock.

She ran her hands across his shoulders and under to his chest, tweaking his nipples hard. He flinched and gasped in arousal. She wrapped her hand around the one he had on his cock, and he came, clenching down on her in spasms. She was only a few thrusts behind him, and the heady rush of her knot filling him made her head spin. She got a final thrust in before her knot swelled, and almost lazily she leaned over Tony and sunk her teeth into the meat of his neck.

“Oh, Pep,” he groaned, rubbing his shoulder blades against her still erect nipples. She guided him forward and to his side. She stroked down his front, collarbones, circling around the arc reactor, and down his belly. He hummed in contentment. Her knot would calm the madness of his heat, and he’d be much more manageable for the next few days. Those days were often some of his most productive; long days working in the lab with a languorous sort of focus.

Since Bruce had come into their lives, things had changed a bit. There was the possibility of Tony getting pregnant, for one, even though he was towards the end of his childbearing years.

She’d always been questioned over why she only kept Tony. A woman as confident and capable as her would be tending a harem of five at least -- ten if what television portrayed was anywhere near realistic. She’d always laughed it off and said if they understood what Tony was like as an omega they wouldn’t be telling her she could handle more. But the truth was, since claiming Bruce and Betty and making their little family a bit more appropriately sized, she’d felt more complete.

She sighed, pressing kisses into Tony’s neck. He made contented noises that were turning needy again. She had time for a bit of foreplay and another round before they both had to be presentable.  
\--  
To say Pepper had been hesitant about Bruce would be an understatement -- a massive understatement. She had seen the videos of the Hulk. She had seen the news reports. She had _been in_ New York during the Abomination incident. Bruce scared her, but lost men seemed to be her thing. She saw his tender, hesitant look, peering around a broken wall in the Tower, and her hormones went raging.

He walked the earth, baring his neck to all who would care to look at him. He was a beast who gentled himself.

“Doctor?” she’d asked, quiet and calm in the destruction.

His eyebrows had hiked up and his shoulders had hunched into a jacket too large to be his. “I was just—”

“It’s okay,” she interrupted, moving into his space. “You’re welcome wherever you’d like to be, in the Tower. I understand you’re not likely to be injured so feel free to wander.”

She’d set some people on finding Betty Ross that evening. Betty had already been making her way to the disaster zone that was New York after seeing Bruce’s alter ego on television, lauded as a hero of humanity. Pepper had simply sent an escort to meet her and make sure she was brought directly to the Tower.

Bruce was gone, but she knew he would be back. Once Tony got his hooks into someone... Bruce would be back, doubly so if she kept Betty in one, easily accessible place for long enough to tempt him. Betty gave her a confused look when she was escorted into Pepper’s office in the middle of the Tower.

“Doctor Ross; it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Pepper extended a hand graciously. Betty took it, brought Pepper’s wrist to her nose for a tentative sniff. When Betty was done, Pepper gave her the same courtesy, getting beta notes of plum and cedar, with a wild, piney streak.

“Why... Who...” Betty began, obviously in the state of exhaustion and shock which the country, but especially those in proximity to New York, were feeling.

“I’m Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. I wanted to personally extend an offer of help while you’re in the city.”

Her eyes turned calculating and sharp. “What do you want?”

“Mr. Stark... Dr. Banner seemed to fit in well with the team. I was given to understand that you might be invaluable in settling him, not to mention that your expertise in translational research could be invaluable in our biotech division. I wanted to give you a place to land, and extend an offer of employment if you would care to consider it.”

Betty’s nostrils flared as she inhaled again, contemplating her words. “I’m not going to be bait for Bruce,” she said finally.

“I would never use mates like that,” Pepper said, a subtle twist of scorn in her words. “I know that the General made some less than scrupulous choices regarding you and Dr. Banner, but a woman in my position would not act in a similar way, I assure you. Tony is my omega and I aim to see him productive and happy. He and Bruce seemed to get along well, so I’ll do what I can to facilitate that relationship, both professionally and on a personal basis. That’s all you are in this.”

Betty narrowed her eyes at Pepper once more. “Bruce isn’t here any longer, is he?”

“No.” The word hung between them with a ringing finality. “I suspect he’ll be back, though. Tony... He gets people to take care of him. He’s tenacious and disinclined to let Bruce wander the world by himself any longer. Until he does get back, or until you decide to move on, you’re welcome to quarter here. You can have your pick of relief postings in hospitals around the city. If you’d like to work with R&D we can do that too, or alternately we can arrange some rest time for you, though I fear New York won’t be up for showing its grandeur to the casual visitor at this moment.”

Pepper was not an alpha accustomed to disappointment when she put her mind to a problem. More so, though, she was the sort of alpha who inspired trust and a comforting sort of faith which had drawn in many over her lifetime. Betty was caught before she realized she had been running. Betty worked with emergency medical services for a few tense weeks until the city had returned to a rhythm, if not a normal rhythm. Pepper took it as a solemn duty to see her tower’s inhabitants fed and watered at intervals, so she would make sure catering was delivered every few days, and would make sure everyone attended the resultant feast. At first it was just Tony, Betty, Happy and a few of the staff who had stayed in the city for a variety of reasons. Natasha, with Clint and Coulson (who wasn’t actually completely 100% dead, thank god) in tow, appeared a few weeks later. Steve wasn’t far behind them.

Pepper liked Betty. There were so many men around the Tower between construction crews and the cleanup crews that having another woman around, especially a beta as calm and steady as Betty, was a relief. Pepper didn’t realize what she was doing until Tony hooked his chin over her shoulder (he was standing on a stair above her to accomplish the feat) and asked, “So when are you girls gonna... you know?”

She’d been staring at Betty with a calm sort of contemplation, making sure her manner was relaxed and that she seemed happy. She wanted to go to the other female and soothe away her worries. She wanted to make sure she was comfortable and at home. It was a feeling Pepper was not unused to feeling for all of her employees, but it was stronger, hotter, and more insistent. It was a feeling that had teeth which had latched onto her liver. It was a feeling that was worrying away at her insides in the best sort of way. All of these people, they were hers, but she wanted to make Betty _hers_ like Tony was hers. She wanted to lick her skin and see if it tasted like the woods.

“She and Bruce.”

“You could have him too. We could—”

Pepper growled in frustration and stymied lust. Mated beta pairs were difficult to bring to heel under an Alpha. “You’re getting ahead of yourself,” she told him with stern finality.

“No, I’m just getting ahead of you,” Tony retorted. “You’re a woman, you understand her. Just go talk to her; I’m sure Bruce will be—”

“I’m not going to approach her until Bruce is here as well.”

Tony harrumphed in dissatisfaction but left the topic alone. Luckily for both of them, Bruce appeared not long after.

“He’s here! Bruce is back! Go get him! You said—”

“I _said_ I wouldn’t talk to Betty without her mate. I didn’t say I would ambush a man fresh off of sixty-seven hours of travel to pressure him into a sexual relationship he is neither emotionally nor physically prepared for.”

Tony stopped, hands raised mid-wave. “Oh.” He looked guilty as though the thought had perhaps not occurred to him. His omega tendencies meant he oscillated wildly between all his efforts going towards his pack, and being utterly, unthinkingly selfish. This was a selfish moment, obviously. “That’s why you’re a good person. I’ll just go...” Tony turned around and rode the elevator to his workshop.  
\--  
“Are you certain you’re okay with this?” Pepper asked a final time. Tony was practically vibrating with want, but was silent under her stern look. Betty and Bruce were joined together, pressed down the sides and clasping hands. “If we try it and it’s not working for you, you can walk away too.”

Bruce looked up at Betty. “Betts,” he growled, almost sounding scared. She kissed the wild tangle of his hair and rubbed her cheek against the salt and pepper curls.

Pepper held her arms open, unsure where this would go but willing to give it a try. Betty and Bruce approached as one, fitting their cheeks into a palm each, nuzzling into her wrist. She let them sniff their fill before sliding long fingers into the hair at their napes. She locked eyes with first Betty and then Bruce. They each looked down and away after a long moment, exposing their throats just a bit in the movement.

She dipped first to Betty’s throat, nuzzling under her ear while maintaining a strong hold on Bruce’s nape. Betty was the same soft cedar and fresh pine with hints of autumn fruit that Pepper remembered from their first meeting. Pepper licked to taste the other woman’s skin. She licked and mouthed her way down Betty’s neck until she reached the arch of her collarbone. Under her fingers she could feel Bruce tense, so she turned to him. He smelled like limes and curry, like coffee and machine oil and she drank him in. The coffee and machine oil were so close to Tony’s scents that she was growing hard in spite of herself.

Bruce’s skin was just a little oily with a few prickles of body hair and she nosed her way down him until her mouth was over the hollow of his throat. He submitted, but it was with a tense, forced nature. Tony pressed himself down her back with a needy whimper. 

Pepper stepped away from them, dropping her hands. They swayed towards her as though to follow but she held up her hands, gesturing for them to move together. “I want to see what you’re like together. I’ll step in if I need to, or you can ask me to step in.”

Bruce looked hesitant but hungry. Betty looked at Bruce like she was dying of thirst and he was a rushing stream. It was like the dam broke, and Betty crushed herself against Bruce, her hands on the sides of his face, their kiss heated and sloppy and open-mouthed. Bruce’s hands slid to her hips and around to her low back, pulling her against him with surprising strength. They kissed, and kissed, and kissed, tongues and lips and needy sighs interlocking with a perfect sort of synchronicity. Tony pressed into Pepper’s back and she could feel his hardness against her thigh. They were all still clothed and terribly, surprisingly, wonderfully worked up.

Bruce pulled back with a gasp, turning away from Betty. “I can’t. The Other Guy will—”

Pepper stepped in, laying her hand over Betty’s on his cheek. His scent fluctuated for a moment as he breathed and tried to calm himself. “You’re safe, Bruce. You’re safe here. We need you to keep it together if we’re going to have any fun. Sound okay?”

Bruce nodded. He threw a desperate look at Betty and then a hopeless sort of plea at Pepper. “I knew this wasn’t going to work,” he said, crestfallen.

And then Tony was there, in the middle of the three of them, wiggling and worming his way up to face Bruce. “If the big guy wants to play, I’m always up for some action,” Tony told him, head dropped back in a posture of complete comfort. “I mean, the ladies might want to step out, but some alone time with just us guys... might do us good. On the other hand, just some Alpha/Beta action could be fun to watch. I wouldn’t mind sidelining for that...” Tony suggested with a sly look. Pepper arched an eyebrow at him. It might be just the thing to get Bruce relaxing, provided he wouldn’t get jealous.

Betty turned her fingers so they tangled with Peppers. “He might be right.”

“Come on Sugarbear, lets make ourselves comfortable.” Tony took Bruce by the hand and pulled pillows off the bed into a pile, making an impromptu stage of their sitting area.

“Undress Tony, if you’re feeling up to it,” Pepper added, settling Betty down on a chaise. Pepper shrugged out of her own shirt and bra, and helped Betty with hers. Betty’s nipples were brown and pert, her breasts more generous than Pepper’s. Pepper straddled Betty’s hips, her skirt riding up and her erection rubbing into Betty’s stomach. She palmed Betty’s breasts and thumbed her nipples before burying her nose in the valley between her breasts. The cedar scent was especially strong there and made her think of deep forests and crisp days. Pepper rubbed her cheek against a breast, rumbling growl of ownership rising through her throat.

Betty rolled her hips, slow and controlled, the muscles in her stomach clenching and sliding under smooth skin. The movement rubbed against Pepper through her slip and she growled in earnest. Pepper bit Betty’s nipple harshly, drawing out a surprised cry that turned into a moan as she massaged the hurt away. She glanced over at Bruce and Tony, both half dressed. Bruce had tensed at Betty’s cry but quickly relaxed at her pleasure. Tony had wormed his way under Bruce’s arm, and was lazily stroking his own erection and eyeing Bruce’s thoughtfully. Pepper moved up Betty so they faced one another. Betty’s eyes were slitted almost closed, her hair strewn artfully behind her head. She was beautiful, and strong, and if Pepper stepped away from her she would remain. Sometimes Pepper felt the breathless, crushing weight of responsibility with Tony. She knew very well that if Tony were to... have to go on without her, he would. He would survive. He was strong. But she had the feeling he would bend and twist into a shape she would no longer recognise.

Betty and Bruce, as delicate as they could appear sometimes, were not fragile.

Pepper nodded towards Bruce’s lap, a glance all that needed to pass between her and Tony after years of familiarity. Tony’s palm skated over Bruce’s waist and hip. Bruce tensed once more but his lips parted in a subtle tell of want. The boys would take care of each other. Betty needed some care that had long been denied her.

Pepper glanced down at Betty who had been watching the boys. She ran her fingers through Betty’s hair, fanning it out further and scraping her long nails against the other woman’s scalp. “You’re a very beautiful woman,” Pepper told her, savoring the silky feel of her hair running through her fingers.

Betty didn’t seem to have anything to say to that, blushing just a little, and tilting down her chin as though to hide her face. She was splayed on Pepper’s chaise, though, so there was no hiding. “You can relax here. No more worrying.”

“Easy for you—” Betty began, but Pepper cut her off with a kiss. It was the surprise of the contact more than the force of it that silenced Betty, but as Pepper lengthened and deepened the kiss it was the spun power of the moment that prohibited words. Pepper worked her hands to the other woman’s breasts, and lower to Betty’s waistband. She ran her hands around to Betty’s hip bones, and kneaded into the meat of her buttocks. Pepper hooked her leg under Betty’s and pulled her into her erection. Hitched slightly off the chaise, Pepper undid the zipper down the back of the other woman’s skirt and peeled it off, her panties with it.

Pepper took a few deep breaths, tossing aside the clothes and leaving Betty naked and splayed on the chaise. The scent of her pervaded Pepper’s senses; inviting but in a different way than Tony’s. Betty’s pupils were dilated and her expression was one of confusion and want. Her skin was flushed a glowing pink, and Pepper trailed her nails down, raising red welts and goose bumps in her wake. Betty shuddered.

Bruce groaned. Betty and Pepper’s heads both whipped towards the noise. Tony had the other man’s cock in his hand, and was kissing his inner thigh with a single-minded focus which he usually reserved for engineering. Pepper hummed in satisfaction. Bruce arched into the contact, eyes shut tight, fingernails digging into his thighs to keep from touching Tony back.

“Tony,” Pepper reprimanded. She waited until Tony had licked up the crease of Bruce’s hip, and rolled over into a messy sprawl all over Bruce’s lap. “You’re making Bruce miss the show.” Tony frowned and craned backwards to see Bruce only just opening his eyes. Tony nuzzled into the other man’s erection with his cheek, baring his neck in the process. “It’s okay to touch him, Bruce,” Pepper told him. “He needs a lot of physical affection; make sure he gets it.” The redirection was partly to keep Tony from getting too worked up too quickly, and partly to give Bruce something to focus on other than himself. It seemed to work, Tony reveling in the attention as Bruce tentatively wound his fingers through Tony’s hair to his shoulders.

“They look good together,” Betty commented, shifting to stretch down to her toes.

“They do. I think the Alpha and the Omega pheromones might help keep the Hulk in check during more... vigorous activities.”

Betty smiled, coy and saucy and secretive like she’d just remembered a dirty joke and the punchline was good enough to make her come. “I have missed... vigorous activities.”

Pepper grinned and dipped down to kiss the other woman, breasts brushing together. The hand not employed in propping herself up ran freely over Betty’s chest and belly. Betty squirmed against Pepper in a motion that turned into enthusiastic writhing as Pepper slowly rutted against Betty’s hip. Betty’s hands began wandering over Pepper’s skin, grabbing her butt cheeks to pull the alpha closer to her. Betty’s leg twined with Pepper’s, so she could rub herself on the other woman and ease her arousal. It was more forward than she was used to with Tony. He’d learned her rules long ago, and he had a good intuitive understanding of taking turns when it came to orgasms and attention.

“Betty.” Pepper spoke her name calmly but Betty’s expression held a wellspring of anxiety. “This is about you right now. Unless it’s for yourself, you don’t do it, okay?” Betty nodded, the anxiety not leaving her. Pepper leaned close to her so her lips brushed Betty’s ear and whispered, “I am going to make you come so hard and so long that you will have to call in at the clinic tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure that they—”

“Shhhh,” Pepper shushed her. “You deserve to be the focus for now. Tony is taking care of Bruce. Let me take care of you.” Betty looked about to protest. “If you don’t, I won’t feel like a good alpha,” she added.

“That’s a dirty trick,” Betty replied with a smirk, but lay back, a little tense but trying not to show it. Pepper nosed her way across Betty’s skin, down her stomach and to her mound. Her scents were stronger there, deeply satisfying to a buried part of Pepper. She bracketed Betty’s hips with her hands and moved around the curve of her pelvis, fingers digging into the soft flesh of her buttocks. Pepper had been with her share of partners in the past. Before she had taken on Tony, she had eased her share of omegas through heats as part of her collegiate women’s alpha corps, and one or two whom she had considered longer term partnerships. She’d bedded both male and female betas, though usually in different manners. She had been with Tony for a long time; she had done her duty by the odd omega in an unusual and pressing situation, but otherwise she had been aberrantly monogamous for almost ten years.

When her fingers teased down Betty’s folds, it was with a certain amount of nostalgia. Her pseudopenis was tiny -- barely the size of a nipple -- even while erect from arousal. Her entrance was silky and wet, and Betty’s juices lubricated Pepper’s fingers nicely as she explored. Betty moaned as Pepper’s fingertip traced just a little deeper in her folds, testing the heat at Betty’s center and stroking towards it.

The boys had gone quiet, the sounds of flesh sliding over flesh silent, as they were frozen in a tableau watching Pepper work. Pepper spared a glance towards them, meeting Tony’s eyes and glancing down at Bruce’s erection. She ran the tip of her tongue over her top lip, and he knew her so well -- they went down on Bruce and Betty in unison.   
\--  
Betty had duties in clinic and Pepper could hardly lounge about all day, even if they had engaged in a sex marathon which, outside of heat, could only be called an unfettered bacchanal. Pepper woke early in spite of the night’s vigors, and went through the motions of preparing for the day. Betty and Bruce were cuddled together with Tony arms determinedly tucked around Bruce like a sleepy limpet. The betas were much lighter sleepers than Tony and woke with the soft sounds of Pepper’s morning routine. Bruce startled a bit, but Tony squeezed tighter and nuzzled into Bruce’s neck, effectively quieting the other man. Betty stretched, long thighs going taut under the sheets. She winced, but then smirked, feeling sore muscles from the night before.

Pepper smirked at Betty fondly, and paused in her routine to give her a kiss. “Everything good?” Pepper asked in barely a whisper.

Betty groaned appreciatively, and quirked a wry eyebrow at Bruce. “I always knew I would share him with science, but I didn’t think science would be so handsy.” Tony had wormed his thigh between Bruce’s legs.

“I think it’s good for him to have someone he’s not competitive with,” Pepper murmured in reply. “We can try this again, if you liked last night. Nothing formal if that’s not what you want, but...” Pepper swept a hand at the palatial bed. “There’s room for more.”

Betty smiled a slow, bright smile that Pepper hadn’t seen before. “I think that might be nice.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments, thoughts, feelings, and concrit are all appreciated. Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
